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Windows 7 for XP ProfessionalsUpdating Support Skills from XP to Windows 7by Bink.nu's Raymond Comvalius
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Microsoft Corp.'s consumer security software changes the Automatic Updates (AU) settings in Windows XP and Vista without telling users or getting their approval, a researcher said today -- behavior that may explain recent reports of patches being installed and systems rebooting without permission.
When Microsoft responded to new charges of silent changes last week, however, it denied that AU settings were ever altered without user approval, and it didn't mention OneCare as a possible culprit.
Scott Dunn, an editor at the "Windows Secrets" newsletter, reported this morning that OneCare silently changes AU settings as it installs. No matter what AU setting the user selected previously, OneCare's installer quietly changes it to the fully automatic option.
"Some security products have turned on AU in the past," said Dunn, who also tested several other current consumer suites, including Symantec Corp.'s Norton 360 and Norton Internet Security, McAfee Inc.'s Internet Security Suite, and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.'s ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite. "But OneCare was the only guilty party."
OneCare's willful way with AU may be an explanation for the reports two weeks ago of machines downloading and installing the Oct. 9 set of security fixes even though their owners had explicitly instructed Windows to ignore all downloads or notify them before they were installed.
Several days later, after it wrapped up an investigation, Microsoft said AU settings were never changed without user consent, and it blamed absent-minded users for making modifications and then forgetting that they had.
"I find this surprising and very disturbing," said Dunn. "If they're going to change settings, they should let you know."
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In the case of OneCare... if you buy a product that advertises itself as "a kitchen-sink security suite" that is supposed to do things for you so you don't have to worry about it, and I admit that I use and like OneCare on a few of my systems, then that should be exactly what you get. It still comes down to a choice being made. You choose the products, and you choose the functionality to enable, so it carries out its orders to the letter.
As for the AU Engine Updates, well, that's a no-brainer as well... if you choose to let AU check or check/update your system, then it has to update its own engine to perform those checks.
Even so, neither AU nor OneCare are new... why has it taken this long for people to pay attention? Answer: the privacy critics and media have had little else to whine about out of Microsoft lately.